Connect with Brad Gilbert

Brad Gilbert was born August 9, 1961 in Oakland, California, USA

TENNIS PLAYER

Gilbert started played tennis very early and made a name for himself as a top class
tennis player while playing for Foothill College and later for Pepperdine University,
where he became an All-American. He turned professional in 1982, winning his first
top-level singles title the same year in Taipei and his first doubles title in 1985
in Tel Aviv.

Gilbert was not known for his powerful serve and his lightning backhand. He was mostly
a defensive player who at times managed to win against much better players, controlling
the game by destroying other players' rhythm and taking advantage of their oversights.
McEnroe called him "a pusher," but Gilbert's strategy managed to keep him among
the top ten players in the States for nine years. His professional tour lasted ten
years, not a small feat.

Gilbert won a total of twenty top-level singles titles during his career, and defeated
some of the great names of tennis, such as Pete Sampras, Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker and
Michael Chang. His career-high singles ranking was as World no. 4, in 1990.

Gilbert's most successful year as a professional tennis player was 1989, when he
won five singles titles. He won a bronze medal in the men's tennis singles at the
Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988.

Gilbert is a member of the USTA Northern California Tennies Hall of Fame, Pepperdine
University Athletics Hall of Fame, ITA Tennis Intercollegiate Hall of Fame and Marblehead
High School Athletic Boosters Hall of Fame.

Gilbert retired as a professional tennis player in 1995, when he started a successful
tennis coaching career.

COACH

Gilbert's highly successful coaching career has been attributed to his superb tactics
and extraordinary strategy that he put to best use when playing tennis.

Gilbert's most famous coaching job was coaching Andre Agassi for eight years. They
worked together from March 1994 until January 2002. During that period, Agassi won
six majors, describing Gilbert as "the greatest coach of all time".

Gilbert worked as a coach to Andy Roddick from 2003 to 2004. During their working
together, Roddick won the 2003 US Open, when he became the world no. 1, and reached
the 2004 Wimbledon final.

In 2006 Gilbert started coaching Scottish tennis player Andy Murray. They worked
together for sixteen months and during that time Murray reached his career high of No.
8 on the world tour.

Gilbert also coached British player Alex Bogdanovic in 2007 and Japanese Kei Nishikori
in 2011.

Gilbert occasionally works as a tennis commentator and analyst for ESPN. He has also
written two books on tennis: "Winning Ugly," in which he shares his strategy on defeating
more skilled opponents, and "I've Got Your Back," together with James Kaplan.

Gilbert currently lives with his wife and three children in San Rafael, California,
USA.